Errr

Temperature: 18C
Weather: Warm and windy
Stings: None

Hmm.
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Old hive - going very well. They have filled an entire super (pretty much) in about 10 days. So I added another one to give them some more room. Now I have to consider what to do if/when they have filled that. I'm tempted to give them more brood comb to draw so I can build up my stocks but am also torn about getting a good crop from them. Two supers will be about 30 pounds or so of honey, maybe more which is plenty. I've got more customers than before but I could struggle to get rid of/sell more than 40 pounds.

New hive. Is fine. But I'm not sure why. I went this week all ready to give them some brood from the other hive as I thought there numbers would be dwindling. I opened it up and there were a lot of bees. I looked at the frames and there were eggs in lots of the cells. Plus larvae and capped brood, including drone brood.

I split them at the start of the month but that seems very quick for it all to have happened. Too quick. If all things happened exactly as they should then she could have been laying early last week. But brood is capped on day nine and that means 28 days is too short. I'm not complaining, I don't think. But if it is not the queen they raised where has it come from? There is a tiny chance that the bees in the hive are from the swarm on the tree. But that's so unlikely that I don't think it's a real possibility. Plus I checked the colony at that time and they were all there so there wasn't much chance that they'd be ousted by that other lot. Maybe they were getting on with it earlier than I thought. There's only a day or so in it. Hmm.

Anyway, it means that the next problem I have to confront is whether and when to unite them. I could keep them separate and see how they do but that does mean buying lots more equipment.

Rain check

Temperature: 17C
Weather: Muggy, threatening rain
Stings: None

A quick check as it was about to rain very heavily and the bees were really hacked off thImage by photogirl7.1 via Flickrat I was having a look. I did want to have a spin through the super but it was thick with bees that I hoped would be foraging so I nixed that idea. Plus as soon as I cracked open the crown board the guard bees were in my face and more turned up as I started to look through the frames. So, I left them to it. The super had only been on a few days so I don't think there would be much to see even if I'd kept on.

I also checked the smaller colony that's raising the queen. I was wondering if they would need some brood from the bigger colony but it looked pretty healthy. I'll keep an eye on it as it could go south pretty quickly. I might move some over anyway as by the time I realise there is a problem it will probably be too late. I also fed the bees so they have enough to keep them going.

Get set...

Temperature: 15C
Weather: Cloudy, showery
Stings: None

It looks like all the swarm preparations have worked out pretty well. The colony with the old queen is now very healthy. I took down a super of drawn comb for them to start filling as the next couple of weeks (Wimbledon fortnight) are peak flow season. When I took off the crown board to put in a queen excluder I saw that the bees were already building comb above the frames to store honey. I scraped off the excess, set down the super and hopefully they'll make good use of it in the next few weeks.

The colony raising the new queen is doing fine too. I reduced the number of frames they were on to reduce their workload as there are not many bees to keep the colony ticking along. I've not had chance to check the frames and see where the queen cell us but I did notice what looks like some queen cells that have been torn down. I'll have a better look next week. I've also given them a bit of food to keep them going as their numbers are dwindling and the weather isn't great. It takes about six weeks for a colony to start building up again with a new queen so they might need quite a bit of help to survive.

Splitsville

Temperature: 16C
Weather: Cloudy, windy, threatening rain.
Stings: None

A visit this week to finish off the swarm measures. The colony with the old queen was shifted along a bit and the other colony was moved to its other side. This means the flying bees will return to the colony with the old queen. And it further depletes the numbers in the colony raising the queen. I should have done this last week but the panic over the swarm meant I didn't have time.

When I next go I'll sort out the smaller colony and shrink it down to a few frames. If I had a nuc I would put it in that so they can get on with raising the queen and sorting themselves out. It'll mean I have brood comb with stores in to extract and will make it easier for them to raise a queen.

What I'll also do is sort out the flagstones I use as sites for the colonies. With three in place it'll be easier to do these kinds of swaps in the future.

Swarm spotted

So my bees are now all set. I found the queen and put her in a fresh hive and started feeding her. The other hive is also now getting on with raising a new queen. All I've got to do now is decide if I unite the two colonies and when I do it or do I raise a new queen and let her take over. The downside of the new queen is that it'll take time for her to mature, go on a mating flight and start laying.

Standard estimates suggest it will take at least three weeks to go from egg to emergence to mating flight and laying. I need to add on to that another three weeks for new workers to emerge and get going. So I'm facing a six week fallow period while the new queen settles in. Hmm.

Alternatively I can establish her in a nuke and get the other bees into the other hive so they are building up as the other one is coming along. Lots to ponder.

But, the day after I did the swapping and was back tidying up the plot I noticed a swarm settled in a cherry tree nearby. I didn't think it could be mine as I'd only just swapped them around and my queen has her wings clipped so can't fly off. So I left them to it.

I came back this week and that swarm was still there. I panicked and wondered if it was mine so, against my better judgement, cracked open the queen-raising colony to see if it was them. No, it wasn't. There were loads of bees in that colony. Far more than would be left if lots were in a cluster on a nearby tree.

It's also not the other one as there are loads of bees flying in and out of that colony so they are happily getting on with being in their new home. Hmm. There's not much I can do about it as I do not have enough equipment to house them. I suspect next time I go down they will have flown away.